We are currently working on 9 projects:
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Racial Equity and Education – with the funding of Ontario Trillium Foundation, we will be working with Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA), Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators, Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto, and Tamil Canadian Centre for Civic Action to engage in two years of groundwork for systemic change in education policy, while engaging with organizations of racialized communities.
- Diverse Youth Fellowship: A non-partisan program, the Youth Fellowship provides politically motivated students the opportunity to complement their academic studies with hands-on experience working with an elected government representative, to help ensure that the substance, shape, and details of what Toronto’s government decides better reflects community experiences. Please visit the Youth Fellowship website for more information.
- Anti-Racism & Anti-Oppression Training Institute – A formalized resource to provide broad and customized ARAO training and workshops for different audiences and themes, policy and program reviews for whole or parts of organizations, and public education to the general public.
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Museum of Anti-Racism - With $50,000 seed funding from Clorox Canada Company, we're working to document 50 years of activism through a virtual museum, including the history of racism (policies, incidents, and reports),
anti-racism, and Anti-Black rcism (court cases, campaigns, activists, organizations, policy change, etc.), and to create 100 lesson plans and 25 workshop modules.
- Reclaiming Our Narrative – We shape our own narrative and strive to educate through media interviews, training and monitoring, our online media (social media, podcast, e-updates), weekly online shows, and blogs from the team. In 2021, we will also be releasing a quarterly print publication summarizing our work.
- Racial Equity Awards – In this annual event at the end of the year, we recognize 6 to 10 changemakers for racial equity in Health, Labour, Government, Education, Media, and Justice, as well as a UARR Agent of Change. This year, the event will be hosted online.
- Access to Justice – These initiatives include reconsidering budgets, reforms, training, and complaint systems for police services, as well as protecting and expanding legal aid, legal defence funds, legal interventions, and educational law reforms.
- REBuild Initiative – This entails youth-led research and consultation work to assure that the voices of racialized communities are heard as various levels of government respond to COVID-19. We are working with government departments including the City's Toronto Office of Recover and Rebuild (TORR); the province of Ontario's Anti-Racism Directorate, the Government of Canada's Anti-Racism Secretariat, and school boards. We are working on a Scarborough-based model for racial equity in recovery, and are working with funders to ensure grants reach racialized communities.
What about Scarborough? Racial Justice in our COVID-19 Recovery - Watch the event here!
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Racial Justice Policy Hub – With close to 100 volunteers interested in research and policy change, we hope to influence structural changes in the Anti-Racism Secretariat federally and the Anti-Racism Directorate provincially, as well as in municipal policies in the GTA.
The Racial Justice Policy Hub compiles written pieces from volunteers at Urban Alliance on Race Relations, researching issues and policies that pertain to health, justice, education and media.
The volunteers have been disseminating information on our social media about issues regarding access to healthcare, intersectionality, defunding the police, misrepresentation in the media, employment, justice, and environmental racism to name a few.
Volunteers produce research summaries, short papers on pertinent policies, and personal essays. Take a look at the excellent work from some of our brilliant volunteers here.
